Typical, this man resigns himself from his job for drug misuse and still gets paid over £60k for jetting off into the sunset to try and recuperate with his companion..wonder who footed the bill for this one? bet Glasgow City Council are going to have a major wake up call this coming week and with the elections on the horizon, labour aint going to be doing to well.
Tick tock tick tock, count down to see how many other surprises get released in the coming weeks.

“Senior Labour figures in Scotland were shocked last week to learn that the city council leader had a drug problem and had been warned by police that he was in danger of being blackmailed by suppliers. ”

“It emerged yesterday that officers from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforecement Agency visited him at his office in the city chambers last May to warn that he could be open to blackmail. The agency told him that it was aware of a dealer claiming to have evidence of drug use which could end his career.”

“Mr Purcell later confessed to aides that he had taken the class-A drug. However, he assured them that the problem was in the past and he promised to change his lifestyle.”

“One former colleague said: ‘He not only promised to change his lifestyle but appeared to demonstrate he was serious by moving house and going to the gym five days a week.'”

I’m surprised at how quick some on here are to judge the man. If he had done anything seriously wrong, he would have been arrested. As it was, he was questioned at work (not down at the police station) and that was clearly the end of the matter considering there was no police follow-up.

Glasgow City Council certainly has its fair share of problems, and people (as so often when it comes to their council) are rightly angry as a result. However, I doubt any person of reasonable intelligence would believe tabloid hack reports that he’s partying it up in the sun and having a lovely time. I mean, use your head!

Nice to see that in one of the poorest cities in the UK the Liebour party think snorting its residents cash up their nose is a good use of public money.

Typical of their approach to government really – let the very poorest rot whilst they live the high life.

I don’t generally subscribe to conspiracy theories but there is not a whiff of this on the BBC website.

Imagine if a Conservative council leader had resigned and fled into hiding after their addiction to columbian nose candy became known – Headline news for days at the BBC I would imagine. Biased, new Labour loving f88kers.

Apologies George. I forgot to credit The Times with the quotes (not a tabloid)

Second point, the police becoming aware of a dealer claiming to have evidence of drug use wouldn’t be grounds for arrest.

You might want to google the story because there does seem to be quite a lot about it, although wen I looked, as has been pointed out, it wasn’t something the BBC were picking up (for whatever reason).

Is there a suggestion, vulpus rex, that this man was using money other than his own wages for the cocaine? Or was he just doing as every single one of us does, spending his own money in whatever way he sees fit? I haven’t read of a fraud investigation concerning this man.

Now that all has been revealed, (possibly a lot more to come) about Mr Purcells downfall from grace, how many are now going to ask questions about his decision making whilst under the influence of chemicals, be it alcohol or drugs
ANY decision that Steven Purcell has been involved with may well be called into question as it could be argued he wasnt in a “fit state of mind” to take part in any decision making and any financial issues may also be looked at
Glasgow City Council, in particular the labour party, should now be asking themselves where do we go from here…
Jim Coleman stand in for steven purcell says its business as usual for the council, so i take it by that he means more sleaze, more corruption and more lies spread by the labour party in Glasgow.
Wake up Glasgow, we need a complete new council run party and sorry to say, it aint gonna be labour for much longer.
EVERY labour councillor in Glasgow should be hanging their head in shame,….. but how many more are going to be brought to book shortly for their shenaningans, both inside and outside the City Chambers.
No doubt this aint the end of the Steven Purcell mystery, but i have no doubt a lot more will follow who knows, he might even kiss and tell about what is REALLY going on in the infanous hall of power at Glasgow City Council.

This guy is New Labour through and through – incapable of doing the job but hangs on in their taking the salary until the last minute. When he goes he hires lawyers and spin doctors to threaten injuctions against the newspapers and tell lies and deny there are illegal drugs involved – the spin doctor Persil chose was Jack Irvine who “masterminded” the “Keep the Clause” campaign, Brian Souters failed but hugely damaging homophopbic campaing against the repeal of Section 28.

SimonM has a legitimate point. We are only fooling ourselves if we believe politicians follow a standard of behavior…or all professionals for that matter, including athletes.

Alcoholism is rampant in all countries, and not just in the UK, and so is the use of drugs…it’s a multi-billion dollar industry…who do you think is consuming the stuff??

If we were to question every political decision made under the influence of alcohol or drugs, we would have to start at square one, right.

So when was the fermentation of honey and vegetables invented?

Who ate the first magic mushroom? And when?

Personally, I do hope Steven Purcell, who is only 32 years old, does recover completely, not only because he’s gay like I am, but also because I know that people do recover from alcohol and drug abuse and can go on to live exceptional lives.

SimonM doesn’t care about Persil’s breaking the law despite being part of New Liebour, the party that has imposed innumerable new criminal laws on the rest of us. Jean-Paul doesn’t care about the lies or the threats to the media or the use of the “mastermind” of the “Keep teh Clause” campaign. Who needs bigots when we are as dozy as these two – have they been at the blow?

“SimonM” – the people who are damaged by Persil’s drug taking behaviour are the people of Glasgow and the Council workers who had someone who was incapable as head of a major organisation. The people who are damaged by New Liebour are legion and include those who are criminalised and sent to jail for possession of drugs – people who do exactly the same thing as Persil but instead of being paid handsomly out of the public purse and being showered withsympathy by the likes of you are carted off to jail.

And why are you not at all concerend at Persil’s spin doctors – the homophobes who ran the Keep the Clause campaign – being employed by your man to feed lies to the media and threaten injunctions if they tried to print the truth.